Wednesday, June 30, 2010

I was looking thru my keepsakes box the other day and thought I would share some of the items contained within. Does anyone else have a keepsake box? What do you keep inside? I've been collecting messed up coins for as long as I can remember. My favorite one is the blank penny.. I found it in a new roll of pennies when I worked in retail. The pennies on the left are from various places. PCB zoo, Rock City, Six Flags and the Silver Comet Trail. The two smashed coins were the only two coins recovered from the train tracks. The ones on the right side are just various abused coins. One quarter has its sides rolled in forming a bevel on both sides of the coin.. Some are just bent and twisted and some are overused. I save any wheat pennies, 50 cent pieces or dollar coins I get. I love the look of foreign coins. I also save paper money from around the world. I found one in a box of stuff from an estate sale. Most of the others I've had since I was a kid. The best keepsake of all is the green stone my brother brought home for me from Scotland. I love the color of it. I have another keepsakes box that I've saved all the ticket stubs and cards since Todd and I have been dating.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Finally got my craft room rearranged.I still have more sorting to do but atleast the end is in sight. I put all my glass making supplies in the black milk crate I found on the curb. Everything fits great. I put all my glass rods in a plano box after I took these pictures.I will take better pictures this afternoon. I was still cleaning when I took these Saturday.I drove to Roswell, GA Friday morning to visit Flametree Glass. It was the coolest store. The owners were very friendly and helpful. Here is everything I bought there.On my way home I stopped by a thrift store I'd never been to and pick up a few things. I bought a large bottle of Sobo Glue for .69 cents, a picture frame for a certificate for .50 cents, this huge bread book for $2.69and a bag full of watches for $3.99

Thursday, June 24, 2010

I decided to take Thrusday and Friday this week as mental health days from work. I don't get paid vacation or sick days.I'm so glad I took off work.. I've been really stressed with work lately and I needed some "me time". I got a lot done today in my craft room.

Before

After

The craft room looks better but most of the stuff that was in there is now sitting in the living room waiting to be sorted out.

Chloe even claimed her bunk bed before anyone else had a chance to steal it.. lol

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

I was not feeling very creative this weekend so I didn't get anything done besides laundry. This whole week I have the house to myself so I'm working on getting my craft room rearranged. I needed to be able to use the living room for a storage area. I should have started on it yesterday after work but I decided to play a video game on the big screen in the living room. My boyfriend and his son went with his family to Panama City Beach. I didn't want to go this year. Plus staying home alone is a vacation of sorts.

If I manage to make any progress in the craft room I'll update with pictures but it will probably be a quiet week on my blog this week. I'm still reading blogs daily but won't really have anything to post on mine.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Yesterday evening we had a big storm roll thru so it was a lot cooler outside. I decided to work on glass beads again.As soon as I tried to light my torch I could tell something was wrong with it. It took about 5 tries for it to light and it kept spitting and sputtering the whole time I was working. I had just changed my canister of gas so I knew it wasn't out. I checked up on it online and discovered that everyone that has owned a Fireworks torch says they don't last long. The get gunked up and can't be disassembled for cleaning. I guess I need to look into buying a Hot Head torch.I did manage to make 5 beads but it took forever for the glass to melt and was difficult to work with. The yellow bead shattered when I tried to take it off the mandrel.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

This is my 100th post.... and I don't have anything to blog about. (crickets chirping)

I haven't done any glass beads lately been too hot outside.I haven't worked on miniatures because my craft room is still a mess.I have been working on my craft room everyday. I've discovered that I don't have enough room for all my containers.I've really got to work on the storage side of the room.This is what it looks like from my desk

The lovely picture on the wall was here when we moved in, it is covering a huge hole in the paneling that was also here when we moved in 6 years ago. I think I might remove the old kitchen table from the room completely. Probably put it on the back porch to do glass beads on. I'd planned on using the tv in my craft room but there isn't a cable wire in there so the tv has just been stored there for a few years. I'd love to be able to open the doors on the entertainment center again.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Friday during lunch I stopped by an estate sale that I had been to last month. They had uncovered more stuff so they were selling again. These watches were $1 each

Gloves were 75 cents

These items were 50 cents each

These necklaces were just 25 cents each

Saturday morning I decided to just hit the local sales. When I walked out the door just after 8am it was nearly 90 degrees and muggy. I knew I wouldn't last long out in the heat so I decide to do drive by shopping. There were two sales just a block away from our house and they seemed to only have kids stuff so I didn't bother getting out of the car. I had seen one on Craigslist that said they had crafts so I headed towards it. When I got to the sale I discovered that it was the same yard sale I've been to 3 other times. Her yard is nicely shaded so the heat wasn't so bad.She had put out a lot more stuff than the other few times I'd been there. Tons of craft stuff and selling it cheap.

Friday, June 11, 2010

I finished my steampunk charms last night. I might still add a little bit more to each of them but the over all design is complete. That is a huge weight off my shoulders. Ya'll will have to wait until after the swap is complete to see all of the designs. My cats kept trying to help. Delilah sat and watched for a long time but as soon as she started messing with the charms she was removed from the desk top.Chloe came to help while I was cleaning everything up so I took a few cute pictures of her.I almost got a picture of her yawning but my camera wouldn't focus on her until right after the yawn. But little pink kitty tongues are cute too.. lolHopefully this weekend I'll be able to finish organizing my craft room.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Last night I finally created a Steampunk charm that I love. What do ya'll think?

I haven't worked on my glass beads in over a week since I've been cleaning and making steampunk charms. These are the last set of beads I made... I don't really like any of them. The colors came out ugly..

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

I thought it would be really easy to put together a dozen Steampunk charms... boy was I wrong... There are too many decisions to make. I spent most of the evening yesterday disassembling watch gears and pins. (I finally figured out how to remove the pins in the center of all the gears) Those things are sharp. I don't know how many I've gotten stuck in my fingers so far. Handling watch parts is dirty. I have all these ideas in my head of what to do but making it work in metal is difficult. I guess I need to figure out how to solder everything. I bought a wind up clock a while back at a yard sale and took it apart of all the gears and stuff. I'm worried that the charms might weigh too much.I want to figure out some way to incorporate a couple of the 9mm shell casings I saved from my first time firing a gun.

Here is a sneak peek at some of my layouts so far. (I'm not really happy with them yet.)

The 3 plastic drawers on the right hand side of my desk are packed full of "steampunk stuff".

Thursday, June 3, 2010

This past weekend I went to Barnes and Noble and finally used the gift card I got for Christmas. I bought two booksandSo I tried out one of the techniques used in the lampwork book.I'm pleased with the results for my first few tries.My glass disk kept shattering before I could add all the dots to make the flower petals.

About Me

I have had a love of miniatures my whole life. I got my first cardboard dollhouse for my third birthday.
Three years later my aunt built me a wooden dollhouse that I still have. I started making my own minis for it using anything I could find.